Pension scandal

@ Behind the tragic
story of Henry
Page lie the many

~smouldering grievances
of thousands of veterans
against the Canadian
Pensions Commission.

—OTTAWA.

aged 59, veteran of the First World War, calmly entered the office of Dr. Mur-

S HORTLY before 10 o’clock on the morning of Tuesday, November 25, Henry Page,

ray R. Bowie, medical examiner for the department of veteran affairs.
“Are you Dr. Bowie?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied Dr. Bowie. Page then brought a .38 revolver to within a foot of
the doctor’s chest, pumped four shots into the medical man across his desk, then turned

the weapon on himself. The
tragic killing and suicide has
centered public attention on
the body of laws affecting re-
turned” veterans of two © world
wars, which have long been the
subject of agitation by Cana-
dian Legion bodies, members of
parliament, and pensioners
themselves.

For the greater tragedy is
that the killing could have been
averted had action been taken
to remedy the grievous short-
comings in legislation covering
_ disability-pensions for war vet-
erans.

Immediate cause of the tragic
event was the reduction of a
60 percent disability-pension
awarded the former member of
the “Princess Pats.” Dr. Bowie
had reexamined Page on Octo-
ber 31 and found, according to
his examination, that Page was
no longer suffering an extreme
arthritic condition for which he
was receiving a 40 percent pen-
sion, -

_ The Canadian Pensions Com-
mission recommended cutting
this to 20 percent. Page still was
to receive a 10 percent pension
for gun-shot wounds in the
chest and an additional 10 per-
cent for shoulder injuries. His

total pension was thus cut from
60 to 40 percent.

In round figures based on
Schedule A, the ‘scale-of pen-
sions shown in the Pension Act,
Page’s pension had been cut
from $720 a year or $60 a month
to $480 a year or $40 a month.

Had the same cut in _ per-

centage disability been ordered |

for a former lieutenant-colonel
it would have meant a drop
from $1,116 a year to $744 a
year; and for a one-time briga-
dier-general from $1,800 to §$1,-
200.

Page received an additional
income as a toy repairman in a
departmental store.

WARD of disability-pensions

appears unrelated in the
schedules given to the current
occupation of the veteran. His
former rank in the service
freezes him at a rate of pen-
sion regardless of the fact that
another veteran with a higher
rank suffers exactly the same
wound or condition. Again it

Should be pointed out that most-

higher rank officers. of both
the First and Second World
Wars have independent sources
of income.

Publishers withdraw ‘spy expose’

COLLINS SONS & COMPANY (CANADA) LTD.
publishers and distributors of Soviet Spies—The Story

of Russian

Faced with threat of legal action, the publishers agreed
_ to recall all copies of the book already distributed and to

refrain from publishing or distributing any further copies

or editions of the book.

—MONTREAL.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1947

.

' tion

The granting of unequal rates
for similar disabilities solely on
the grounds of rank held while
in service works a fundamental
injustice in applying the regula-
tions and is bound to create
ill-will and division among vet-
erans. :

Adding fuel to the discontent
among pensioners is the nig-
gardly “letter of the law” ap-
plication of rulings, without re-
gard for factors entering a par-
ticular situation not covered by
the Pension Act. Social service
officers with DVA can undoubt-
edly provide many instances
calling for adjustment that are
not covered by the Act and the
source of real hardship for vet-
erans, incapacitated by the war.

HIAT there is room for sharp
reform in the administra-
tion of veteran pensions, partic-
ularly as it applies to the diag-
nosis of ills and the award of
percentage disabilities to the
veteran, is borne out in a series
of sensational charges made on

November 10 by Dr. W. G.
Blair, M.P., before members of
two Ottawa Progrssive-Conser-
vative women’s clubs.

Page, the First World War
veteran, was suffering from a
condition known as_ arthritis.
According to Dr. Blair, there
are approximately 600,000 suf-
ferers from the disease, out
of which some 125,000 are crip-
pled.

‘It is a disease of long dur-
ation and accounts for more
lost time at work and produc-
than any other chronic
disease - It is a disease
which has been misunderstood
and neglected. Since there is no
specific cure in the past it has
been viewed with a spirit of

hopelessness.” This is what Dr.

ing,

Blair says and DVA arthritic
specialists will undoubtedly
agree with him. <

Later in his talk he makes
the specific charge: “I consid-
er the effort of the department
of national health and welfare
in dealing with the scourge as
puny, ineffectual and misdirect-
ed.”

Blair bases this wholesale at-
tack on the government’s lack
of responsibility in the matter
and on the manner in which
diagnosis and treatment of the
disease js being handled by the
department of veterans affairs.

‘I question thd ability of
DVA to handle this situation.
They have not the staffs on
their hospitals of sufficient
physicians and personnel, trained
in arthritis to carry out such
a program effectively. There is
a marked shortage of physicians
trained in arthritis clinics,” says

Dr. Blair.

=— By MARK FRANK-

N the light of these blunt
charges from a member of
the medical profession, would it
not be wise to conduct a thor-
ough-going review of arthritic
cases still on the files of the
Canadian Pensions Commission?

Again, in the interest of citi-
zens in general, would it not
be indicated that, along with
other shortcomings in the na-
tion’s attack on disease, arthri-
tis be subjected to intense study
and research by the best medi-
cal brains in Canada?

Streamlining of pension-
disability regulations, having re-
gard for social and economic
aspects of each veteran’s case,
and departure from the cold-
blooded mechanical application
of existing regulations appear
tio be delfinitely indicated if
many tragedies of which the
killing here was only an ex-
treme. example, are to be pre-

vented,

Britain fears unemployment

By WILLIAM TAIT
‘—LONDON.
HE fear of unemployment is
haunting Britain today de-
spite the current labor shortage.
The center of Britain’s auto in-
dustry, Coventry, has already
been reduced to part-time pro-
duction, unemployment and part-

.time work have started in the

clothing industry in London and
Leeds and not long ago the
shipbuilding workers on _ the
Clyde told me that unemploy-
ment was as bad as before the
war. ess

I saw what unemployment
méant to Scotland before the
war and it meant the same
thing in every other industrial
area. In the heavy industries
the depression did not end in
1933. In 1935, for example, one-
third of all Scottish workers
were jobless. :

I remember the huge idle
cranes looming over the Glas-
gow streets and the children
playing in their shadow—chil-
dren whose diet was tea, bread
and margarine, and whose
teeth, at the age of 12, were
worn down to the gums.

The pay for a heavy laborer
was 38 shillings $7.60) a week

if he was lucky enough to find
work. I know’ one man who
was unemployed for seven solid
years and a dozen who were
without work for five years.

It was not until the war
came that there was work for
almost everyone, While others
complained of wartime ration-
the Scottish workers ate
better than they had for 20
years simply because they were
earning regular wages. During
the war, infant mortality in
Scotland fell from 77 to 55
per thousand. :

In time of labor shortage; why
do many people fear that these
times will return? There are
ominous signs, they tell you.

CLYDE shipyards boast
that they make the finest
ships in the world and the big
liners earn England precious
dollars. But the Harriman com-
mitte has advised President
Truman that Britain should not
make big liners, that the U.S.
is to build them.

The Clyde workers may not
be experts on international af-
fairs but they’re asking today:
Does that mean we'll be out
of jobs?

Gavin Martin, general secre-
tary of the Confederation of
Shipbuilding and Engineering
Unions, put it bluntly: “Britain
has been trying to sell abroad —
the luxury products of light
engineering instead of the en-
gineering capital goods which
other countries wanted.”

The workers have read the
statement of W. T. Munro,
chairman of the British Export
Woollen Mission, who said re-
cently on his return from the
US.: ne

: doubt that
many firms who now want to
export to the U.S. for the first
time appear to have the idea
that American buyers are , wait-
ing “with open arms to place
orders. for all kinds of mater-
ials; nothing could be further
from the truth . In rmvst
types of woollen goods one may
almost say. that a buyers’ mar- ©
ket exists.” ;

“There is no

In a number of places, the
question is being asked: “How
can Britain’s out-of-date indus- ©
tries compete with U.S. indus-
try in a buyers’ market?”

1 .
Interested in jobs rather than
political maneuvering, many

workers and their representa-

tives in parliament are asking
why Britain cannot supply
heavy machinery to eastern Eur-

ope in exchange for needed
food. The question has now
come even from Minister of

Food John Strachey.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11